Press

Showing Press in Prison Oversight

Staten Islanders had the opportunity Thursday night to briefly experience one of the hardest parts of our nation’s penal system.
A group of advocates brought a makeshift solitary cell to the South Shore YMCA in Eltingville to show people the level of isolation inmates can face.
The model was constructed by Doug Van Zandt, of Albany, after his son Benjamin hanged himself in a cell just like the 6-foot-by-9-foot model.Read More

One candidate for New York governor, Cynthia Nixon, wants to abolish solitary confinement in our prisons. To New Yorkers like me who have survived this torture, that means she has done her homework.
My first experience with solitary confinement was a 60-day sentence in what’s known as “Keeplock” at Coxsackie prison.Read More

Ever wonder what it’s like to be in solitary confinement?
The New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC) is hosting an exhibition on injustice in the prison system on Thursday at the South Shore YMCA in Eltingville.
The event is from 6 to 8 p.m., and will have a panel presentation, discussion and a replica of a solitary confinement cell.Read More

John J. Lennon, a contributing writer at The Marshall Project, has written for Vice, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. He is currently in Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York. He will be eligible for parole in 2029.
Joe Cardo was out hunting for half-smoked cigarettes.Read More

If New York state were punishing misbehaving prisoners by pulling out their fingernails, I believe our local senators and assemblymen would put a stop to this. Yet the legislature continues to allow the extended use of solitary confinement in prisons. Make no mistake, this is torture.
Don’t take my word for it.Read More

Southport Correctional Facility is one of two super-maximum security prisons in the state that places an emphasis on solitary confinement. A new report looking at the facility’s practices is highlighting the negative impact solitary confinement can have on a human.
So advocates are making a renewed push for the HALT Act.Read More

MEDIA ADVISORY: PRESS CONFERENCE
New York (December 11, 2017): Lawmakers, Advocates, Southport solitary survivors, and Family Members join the Correctional Association of New York (CA) to release a stunning new CA report about Southport Prison, featuring first-hand accounts of brutality, self-harm, mental, emotional, and physical abuse at one of only two prisons in New York State devoted primarily to solitary confinement
Calling for passage of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Bill A.3080/S.4784
WHAT: Public release of “Solitary at Southport A 2017 Report Based Upon the Correctional Assn.’s Visits, Data Analysis, & First-Hand Accounts of the Torture of Solitary Confinement from One of New York’s Supermax Prisons”
WHEN: Wednesday, December 13, 12:30 PM
WHERE: 250 Broadway, 22nd Floor, Room 2225 (I.D.Read More

ALBANY — New York’s complex of 54 state prison facilities is struggling to fill vacant jobs for nurses, doctors and other health care providers.
Filling those vacancies and dealing with an aging prison population at facilities across the state have become among the tallest challenges for the $3 billion correctional system, top administrators concede.Read More

Police lockups will be required to have tampons, sanitary napkins on hand
ALBANY — Police lockups will be required to have feminine-hygiene products on hand for female detainees under a new state rule adopted Wednesday.
The rule from the state Commission of Correction mandates that tampons and sanitary napkins shall be made available to all female detainees at a facility’s expense.Read More

Federal and local prosecutors said on Wednesday that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges in the 2015 death of a prisoner at the Fishkill Correctional Facility who died after an altercation with a group of guards there.
An autopsy classified the death of the inmate, Samuel Harrell, 30, as a homicide, and the prison had long been identified by inmate advocates as a place where officers routinely abused inmates.Read More